I'm an associate editor at Forbes, part of the team responsible for our signature issues: The Forbes 400, Global Billionaires and America's Richest Families. As a writer, I cover these wealthy business builders as well as other entrepreneurs. Before Forbes, I also reported on entrepreneurs for Inc. magazine and attended Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Republicans are wasting no time in establishing their position in the debt ceiling-cum-sequester war: Cut the budget, or we shut down the government. At least for a bit.

This sentiment was echoed most recently by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the right-hand of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a Houston Chronicle op-ed. “Republicans are more determined than ever to implement the spending cuts and structural entitlement reforms that are needed to secure the long-term fiscal integrity of our country,” he writes. “It may be necessary to partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well being of our country, rather than plod along the path of Greece, Italy and Spain.”

Before Cornyn’s op-ed, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) made these comments on MSNBC: “We Republicans need to be willing to tolerate a temporary partial government shutdown, which is what that could mean, and insist that we get off the road to Greece because that’s the road we’re on right now.” And before Toomey, there was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). He voiced his support for a partial shutdown to The Dallas Morning News, adding that the 1995 shutdown was “the greatest degree of fiscal responsibility we have seen from Congress in modern times.”

What’s at stake? The composition of the $110 billion in spending cuts that, under the fiscal cliff compromise, pols delayed for two months. Originally, the cuts were slated to start this week, but lawmakers decided that putting it off made sense, an action that reinforces procrastination as the hallmark of today’s Congress. Now, Democrats say they want a mix of revenue increases to accompany any spending cuts. Republicans, particularly the party’s vehemently anti-tax wing in the House, have focused comments solely on spending cuts, making little mention of any more tax increases. Recall that raising taxes on the wealthiest 2% in America left those anti-tax House Republicans livid, and that those lawmakers very nearly derailed the fiscal cliff legislation because of it.

To force Democrats to go along with the budgetary cuts, Republicans hold the most valuable chip available in this game of brinkmanship. Unless Republicans capitulate to increasing the debt ceiling—America hit its statutorily allowed limit on Dec. 31—the federal government will shutdown sometime before March. And before they raise the ceiling, Republicans will want Democrats to agree to some lopping of the budget. President Obama, meanwhile, says he won’t negotiate at all if the GOP does not go ahead and extend the debt limit.

That Republicans are already warning the country that they will turn off the lights in D.C. is an alarming situation. Depending on what happens in the debt ceiling debate, the Treasury Department might just have trouble paying the bills on time…or the whole apparatus could cease to function. Past that, there’s a risk that the credit-rating agencies could downgrade the United States, raising the country’s borrowing costs (and making that newly approved debt more costly).

Not to mention the damage to the broader economy. The last debt ceiling fiasco in August 2011 dashed consumer confidence. Why shop anywhere else than bargain-centers like Wal-Mart and or a dollar store when the nation seems to be falling apart? Shortly before the nation went past the deadline in 2011, the CEOs of Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs sent a letter to The White House that urged for a quick resolution:

A default on our nation’s obligations, or a downgrade of America’s credit rating, would be a tremendous blow to business and investor confidence — raising interest rates for everyone who borrows, undermining the value of the dollar, and roiling stock and bond markets — and, therefore, dramatically worsening our nation’s already difficult economic circumstances.

Granted, the economy is in slightly better shape today than it was in August 2011. Not so strong, though, that the consequences of a shutdown would be much different.

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The alarming statement here is that you think stopping Obama and the Democrats spending orgy is a problem. If you shut down government we would not even notice. No one in DC does anything needed by the taxpayers

You file for a refund. Who is going to process that refund for you? You just shut down the government so the IRS won’t be collecting your taxes or paying those refunds which are generated through the Treasury Dept. You can file all you want but there is no law that states when you are to receive that refund. Will know on Jan 20th when the IRS posts their refund dates. I am sure this will be longer this year since this would be an easy way to delay the debt ceiling date. Oh, don’t forget all of those staff workers for the three branches. They are also non-essential. I guess the Congressmen will have to do their own research and write their own bills?

Can any one of these economic genuises tell me what’s going to happen, what are they saving us from? If I’m supposed to accept their claim and accept the consequences of their actions, then they better damn well be able to show me what they are saving me from. All I’ve heard so far is the sky is falling. It’s amazing how a fine State like Texas is saddled with two Senators, who have no economic training or background, but are ready to screw the economy the rest of us depend on. It’s like a playground snit, except the consequences of their belief they know more about the economy than a couple million trained economists.

I confess I find it very disturbing that a group of folks who collectively have the economic training and experience of the Three Stooges are allowed to so blythely crap on us. God help us, the clown car has emptied out and it’s Bozos on parade.

I am one who was personally affected by the shutdown under Clinton. I work as a registered nurse in an acute care setting in a VA hospital. I am not in administration but work on the floor actually taking care of the patients. This possibility of a shutdown does affect me, the other nursing staff who work one-to-one with the patients, the respiratory therapist, lab technicians, imaging technicians, etc. We all continued working for NO PAY for a month under the Clinton shutdown. Being neither a democrat or republican it makes me sick to think how both of these sides have their own agendas they are tending to and do not really give a crap(and being a floor RN i know crap) about the american public. I also resent the comments about government employees being unnecessary. I agree there are too many government workers that aren’t needed, I see it every day in the hospital I work in with the number of administrative people, but I think that if I am taking care of former and current military people then yes I and my co-workers shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not we will get our paychecks just because a bunch of people in Washington, who got their Christmas bonus during the Clinton shutdown, can’t come to some sort of agreement. BOTH SIDES need to realize they are expendable in the next election.